After my car was struck from behind, and it dawned on me that I was in the midst of a violent car accident, I did the only thing I could: I relaxed. I let all my limbs go limp and allowed myself to be thrown around with the momentum of each impact. The ability to relax on cue is a skill learned in yoga practice, and especially cultivated by using Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls. Through self-massage with the Tune Up® Balls, the practitioner gains intimate awareness of the tension and tightness in often ignored muscles. The morning of my accident I rolled out the upper back muscles that transition into my neck for even deeper tissue release than just stretching can provide. Check out the attached clip (from the 10 Minute Quick Fix for Upper Back) to take your upper back to the next level of flexibility and relaxation.
Roll Out Tension To Stay Loose When It Counts
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By: Ariel Kiley | Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 |
Comments 29
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About This Author
Ariel Kiley is an avid yoga practitioner and former marathon runner living in Brooklyn, New York. She is a licensed Integrated Yoga Tune Up(R) teacher. Ariel completed her 200-hour teacher training through YogaWorks. She is also a certified Yoga for Runners specialist with Toronto Yoga for Runners master Christine Feldstead and graduate of the Laughing Lotus 300 hour advanced teacher training. Ariel is a prolific writer. Her first book, co-written with best friend Simone Kornfeld entitled "Smitten: The Way of the Brilliant Flirt" will be released by Chronicle in 2013 (www.smittenbook.com). Ariel’s classes emphasize precise physical alignment, an openhearted attitude and absolute self-acceptance. Plus laughter. Always laughter. Her primary intention as an instructor is to help each student merge with the truest teacher possible – the unfailing guide within.
www.arielkileyyoga.com
thank you for sharing your experience Ariel. it’s amazing that you were able to do self therapy so soon after the accident, but also very fortunate too.
it’s good to know that YTU therapy can start so soon after a traumatic event (being mindful and practicing compassion for self of course). i will keep your story in mind when working with students
thanks also for posting this video. i just did a routine very similar to this with Jill today
this is very good to know, thanks for sharing it. I wish I had this knowledge when I had my accident way back. But even just sitting at the computer all day long, doing these moves give an amazing releif afterwards. It took me a little practice to position the balls properly and the video helps a great deal. Thanks.
Thanks so much for sharing. It’s incredible to think that with yoga you were able to completely relax your body in a situation where most people would tense up. Just another way you can take your yoga off the mat and into your life in a challenging situtation. Thanks for posting the video as well. It will be useful to help open up tight muscles in not only the students I have that work in the office setting, but with the athletes as well.
A friend of mine was sleeping in the back of a van when it rolled. He was the only passenger who walked away from the accident unscathed. He believes his body was so relaxed it just bounced like a ball. Learning to relax during times of stress is a powerful life skill–one that benefits body and mind.
That could have easily translated into a serious whiplash injury by the sounds of it. Thankfully you were able to keep aware enough and to do so in split second timing, to keep relaxed. Thanks for posting the video – working with the balls is complex for those of us just starting to use them, so that is very helpful. Yumee, that is one of my greatest fears of motor vehicle operation – being in a vehicle that rolls.
Ariel, thanks for telling your story. I’m struck by your point that the Therapy Balls provide a way to cultivate a letting go to pressure, to impacts and outside forces. When I practised Aikido the instruction was always to not resist the force, instead flow with it and redirect it. That the same practicing of the teaching is available via the Therapy Balls is exciting. When we learn it, then we naturally use it in daily life.
watching the video and seeing the ball placement on the body was so helpful. i am always so tight around and above the scapula, and this practice with the balls is so helpful. its also great to read that after time one can change their immediate response in a situation, such as a car accident, from panic and tension to relaxation.
Ariel, that’s really inspiring that you were able to heal yourself after such a traumatic experience using something so natural. I think what you went through was truly incredible and I find your story absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing your truly touching story.
Self therepy is so important i actually just tried this exercise for the first time yesterday in my teacher training. Doing this relieved so much tension i had that i didnt even know was their. I have ever intention to continue this self therepy continually it really makes a difference!
this video is really great! one of my clients is always tight in the scapulae and levator muscles — this is a great exercise for her.
The art of self therapy is extremely important to share – thank you for the video showing us how to relieve tension in the upper back. Learning how to heal oneself – as well as prevent injuries – is an important practice that everyone should utilize. Not everyone has the time or means to get professional massages outside so it is very beneficial to learn how to care for our own bodies, when and where we need it!
Ariel, you rock sister. I’m so grateful that your diligent practice served you in such a significant, tangible way. You enlightened me about the YTU Therapy Balls when I was in one of your classes so THANK YOU. I ended up doing the YTU Therapy Ball Immersion Training (which I highly recommend) and am now in Jill’s TT. You brought me here!
I was first struck with your use of the YTU Therapy Balls in relation to your running, and general athleticism. Several clients of mine are strong athletes and often it is challenging, and costly, for them to get proper deep tissue massage in such developed areas. The balls really get deep into areas that often go on noticed, and like with yoga on a broader scale, enlighten us to parts of ourselves that we’ve neglected.
This post, however, brings the daily use of these balls down to the regular person that is inevitably tight and unaware – and in need of self massage. Very common areas like the trapezius, levator scapula, and rhomboids are sore and tight just from doing every day tasks – whether an athelete or not. Driving the car, standing up straight, and typing at the computer can all create tightness in the shoulders. I do this work with the Therapy Balls with my clients, and this is a great reminder for me to continue my own practice daily, to keep my self loose and ready for anything.
Great story! I’m glad you shared. I don’t know if I would be so bold as to start to really get into my muscles right after a car-accident, but I guess that comes with intuitive self-knowing of the body. This video is great as well, and Jill is so genuine with her speech; you can really tell it relaxes her each time. That muscle group is such a tense bunch! They really like to contract. I wonder how it’d affect the body if you slid the scapula up and down in opposite directions…? hmm … gonna go roll-it-out!
This is a great technique that I also learned from my instructor. This video is another great demo that can remind me how this is done. Thank you. B.
When I was younger I remember using tennis balls to loosen the knots in my back and it hurts as much today as it did back then. It’s definitely a good ‘hurt’ though being that I can feel every muscle and tendon loosen with every roll. It feels like a deep tissue massage and, if done regularly, can open up my abdominal thoracic breathing.
I discovered the same thing early in my yoga practice when I was surfing. If I got tossed by a wave, I would be less panicked and sore if I just let go and relaxed. That was a big Yoga “aha” moment.
We certainly can’t get enough of that advice. A good Loosey Goosey doesn’t sweat the small stuff. And when the big stuff comes along, it would appear that it becomes an innate response to follow suit. While I haven’t been in any major car accidents (knock on wood), I need to regularly remind myself to breath deeply and relax. I’m new to the Yoga Tune Up Balls, but you don’t have to be any kind of expert to immediately experience the deep and total relaxation of a good YTU ball release. It’s like everything just melts. Can’t get enough of that either! Thanks for the video!
I have just been introducted to using the YogaTune Up therapy balls. I have experienced noticeable relief in my shoulders and lower back from using the balls. Your story inspires me to use them daily!
Ariel, prior to reading this, I never would have thought of relaxing in such a scenario. An amazing split-second decision to not tense,,, And it’s wonderful how you recovered so well. I think the ability to completely relax is very challenging, This makes me wonder if adrenaline and down-regulation can co-exist more often. Your three-series of articles shows the powerful and lasting positive impact regular use of the YTU balls can have on the body.
Do to a shoulder injury i carry lots of tesion in my upper back/neck area. Always protecting my shoulder and neck has created majory tightness in these areas. These exerciess with the therapy balls feel wonderful. They seem to be releasing a lot of the tension that is stored.
Self massage has saved me on many occasions! I believe that I would be ‘injured’ if it wasn’t for the yoga tune up balls. Yesterday, I was rollerblading home at 4:30pm from work. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and CLEAR. Everyone could see me and I was not going fast. Well, a car was just about to hit me and right before I just took off and flew to the right falling down right beside it. I did not hit the car but obviously I hit the pavement…. and hard. BUT I am okay and I have done a lot of YTU ball therapy for the past 24 hours. I am feeling better (not 100%). I will get there.
Glad you are ok, Ariel! I never thought about self massage as much as I’m thinking about it now. It’s important for me to learn my body and be a student of my body. Yoga Tune Up Therapy Balls are my new best friend. Well, definitely in my top 5.
Thanks for sharing Ariel!! I was just rolling around on the YTU Therapy Balls today in training, trying to let go of the tension. Bringing mindfulness from the practice is something I’m still trying to translate to the world “off the mat”.
LOVE this quick series with the YTU Therapy Balls! I do this just about every day with the addition of using the balls with a block at the base of the skull. I am amazed at how much better my back feels and how much more I’m getting out of my chiropractic adjustments and the bodywork I receive as a result of keeping the tissues tenderized with the balls between visits with my wellness practitioners.
Amazing what a little self love, and attention can do when you experience a trauma. The therapy balls are a resource that more people could use to open back up those places in the body where injury has occurred to begin that healing process again, before scar tissue has taken over. As the video clip shows, it doesn’t take much but some time for yourself, to reconnect with places we may want to avoid.
Indeed you are so fortunate and educated/connected enough to your body to take action before the lingering effects of the trauma settled in too deeply. I love the work with the YTU balls that we have learned this week in Level 1 training!
I never had the chance to thank you for sharing with me the tune up balls last Sept. at the temple. They have brought on a vast improvement not on to my physical well being, but my disposition as well. I’m not much for gushing out my thoughts and feelings , but I do have a couple of creeds I try to live by. One is: that respect is something we all deserve from one another, and second is: we should always let people know how much they are appreciated no matter how big or small the deed is. So Thank You! and see in class… AM
I remember years ago, I instructed people to place tennis balls in socks and place them down their back, and down the walls behind them!
Thank goodness for the Yoga Tune Up balls , now I’m able to help clients with them ! The videos definitely enhance their experience, by giving them educational instruction!
Yay YTU balls and relaxation. Today in training we rolled out our shoulders and I had a profound experience of understanding the relationship between the tension in my shoulders and a old lower back injury. Making those fascial connections and releases is such a wonderful gift.